Chris McMillan on Finally Launching His Hair Brand, 30+ Years Into His Career

In our long-running series, “How I’m Making It,” we talk to people making a living in the fashion and beauty industries about how they broke in and found success.

Chris McMillan has been driving global hair trends since he created Jennifer Aniston’s iconic “The Rachel” cut in the early ’90s, but his first client was his mom. He was in third grade when he felt compelled to pick up a brush and a blow-dryer to help coax her hair into the perfect Farrah Fawcett-style coif. 

Today, McMillan still values tradition: “I come from the old-school world of loyalty. I’m a hair salon hairdresser, I still do all the same clients,” he tells Fashionista, referencing his decades-long client-ship (and friendship) with Aniston. “I come from a time pre-social media, where you did IRL, in-real-life hair.” 

But he’s also not afraid to embrace the here and now, and is still out there setting culture-shifting hair trends on TV: Most recently, he cut Leslie Bibb’s “c-nty little bob” for Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which has been trending ever since it aired. 

Looking toward the future, he’s also entering a new, highly-anticipated phase of his career. Yes, Chris McMillan is finally launching his own hair-care brand; it debuts at Sephora on Aug. 12. The initial product lineup puts a focus on styling, with a smoothing blowdry spray, hair gel, mousse, styling balm, hairspray, dry texture spray and wand for flyaway touch ups and edge styling. (That’s not to say the brand won’t eventually branch out into shampoo, conditioner or even accessories — McMillan isn’t ruling anything out.)

“I think it’s about time — I deserve to have a brand,” says McMillan. “Something somebody said to me that made me feel confident to do this was: ‘The day you picked up your scissors is the day you started your brand.'” But it took meeting his (business and life) partner Kenny McGranahan to finally bring it to fruition. McGranahan gave McMillan the nudge he needed, and also brings his business background to the company as the brand’s cofounder and chief executive officer.

Over the course of two interviews — one of which took place while I was fulfilling my beauty-editor bucket-list dream of sitting in his chair for a haircut — McMillan discussed his career highlights, meeting Aniston, the evolution of the hair business and, of course, what we can expect from Chris McMillan, the brand. Read on for the highlights.

What first drew you to hair? I read that you began styling your mom’s hair when you were in third grade.

I was obsessed with Farrah Fawcett, and nobody [working in the local salons then] could do ‘The Farrah Fawcett’ right. So I figured out how to do it. My mom would get her hair bleached, and then I would run home from school, we’d watch ‘General Hospital’ together, and I would put her head upside down and then I’d blow dry it. Then I’d take a brush and smooth it all out, take a curling iron and curl her hair. I’d take a vent brush and brush her hair back, then spray it back, and she’d bring her head up, and it was the Farrah look.

I French-braided my sister’s hair every day. Then [friends] started to pay me $10 each to blow-dry their hair. I’ve always just done hair. When I was in high school, I wasn’t a great student, and my mom was like, ‘You should go to beauty school.’ And I was like, ‘Mom, they’re gay.’ And then my mom was like, ‘You should go to beauty school.’ She knew since I was two years old.

When did you start your formal training?

I went to the salon [in Huntington Beach] that my mom went to when she was pregnant with me and started assisting the guy Nick who did my mom’s hair. That was my very first job. It was a beach town and there were very handsome young men there who were being scouted to be male models. I started grooming these model guys on photo shoots and then someone said, ‘You should go to Milan.’ I went to Milan, and then I went to Paris and started doing test shoots with models. 

When I moved back, that kind of seemed irrelevant, so I moved to [Los Angeles]. I started doing test shoots with model agencies doing hair and makeup. And then I got a job at Estilo, which is a salon in L.A. on Beverly — it was the cool salon. That’s where I met Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston.

So your work with celebrities started very early on in your career — but also early on in their careers.

I met a photographer named Greg Gorman, who had me do a photo shoot with Christian Slater. He had a movie coming out [in 1993] called ‘True Romance’ with Patricia Arquette. They asked me if I would go on the road and for $500 a day, and they would fly me first class and I would do [the two stars’] hair and makeup.

Patricia and I ended up in Paris together, and I’m like, ‘We’re in France, let’s give you a little French-girl bob.’ […] She did press the next day, and she was on the cover of something [saying] ‘Patricia Arquette Has a French Girl Bob.’ That’s what they would call ‘viral’ now.

How did your work with Jennifer Aniston and ‘Friends’ come about?

[Arquette]’s manager Molly Madden had a girl doing a pilot called ‘Sixth of One.’ They just wanted this girl’s hair to be cut a little bit better. That was Jennifer Aniston. 

She came into Estilo to get her hair cut. She had bangs. I was like, ‘You need to grow your bangs out.’ So she did. And I gave her this really cute haircut. Next thing you know, there’s this haircut that everybody loves. She was like, ‘Oh my God, everybody loves my haircut. All the girls on set love my haircut. Will you cut the prop girls’ [hair]?’ Next thing you know, my agent gets a phone call from People Magazine asking, ‘Will you do a story?’ And we’ve been going strong ever since. 

Is there absolutely anything left that you haven’t already been asked about The Rachel or that people might be surprised about when it comes to your relationship with Jennifer Aniston?

It was definitely not something we expected. I just thought of doing a haircut. But it was a perfect storm of a girl with a mid-length haircut with layers that was super relatable on a TV show all at the same time. It’s not like I thought about it. 

But I know that it was something that she thought about. She loved it when I did it, hated it when she had to do it on her own. 

So it was just a magic combination of her hair, your talent and the success of ‘Friends’ that came together at the right time?

She and I are a great match when it comes to hair. I get her as a person and how she’s the girl that touches her hair and is messy on the red carpet and she always throws it around. That girl that you see and you’re like, I wish I could have my hair be looser and more natural and sexy like that. Other people are wearing a puffy wedding dress on the red carpet, whereas Jennifer Aniston’s got a bias-cut vintage Galliano dress and messy, tousled hair, and it’s just super sexy. I think we share that same aesthetic, that sort of effortless ease.

How do you feel hairstyling has changed since you were starting out and working in the ’90s?

I think [styling skills have] been homogenized through social media and through Instagram and things like that. I think that people do know how to cut hair, but everybody’s copying each other and doing the same haircut, whereas before there was more imagination and more creativity with haircuts. And haircuts were more bespoke. Garren and I — or someone like Orlando Pita, Oribe or Serge Normant — we would consider the person. It wasn’t [about] what was in; it wasn’t like, ‘bobs are in, so everyone’s getting a bob.’

When you look back at your career so far, what are you most proud of?

I’m super proud of that first moment of cutting Patricia Arquette’s hair off… Then meeting Jennifer Aniston, creating The Rachel, and getting the opportunity to create so many great looks along the way with her. 

Also Michelle Williams — there have been big moments giving her these iconic haircuts that look so beautiful on her, whether it be a short pixie cut to a little hairline bob. And then Miley Cyrus, all the different looks: taking [her] extensions out, giving her natural hair, to bleaching it, to creating short hair and taking the Hannah Montana out of her, bringing her to the world of fashion.

There’s a picture of Kim Kardashian in a Balmain dress, and it was all her hair, no extensions. I think that was a moment that took her into fashion and elevated her up. Then of course, doing her hair for her wedding — that was also a new look in the world of brides. […] And that went viral.

With everything you have going on, you’ve maintained your own salon business. Why has that remained a priority?

It really has been one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, financially and creatively. I am inspired by every generation that works for me, and you get the feedback and references of all the different generations. 

I’ve had the luxury to have one salon, and I own the salon. I don’t answer to anybody. I’m not in a corporation. I’m very pliable and able to do whatever I want to do. 

How has working with celebrities evolved?

Now, people see the power of celebrity hair and celebrity makeup, whereas we never wanted to be ‘celebrity’ hairdressers or makeup artists. […] It just happened from being booked on photo shoots. You built these relationships with these actors and actresses [and] organically became these ‘celebrity’ hairdressers and makeup artists. 

When I first started out, all I wanted was to do five haircuts a day, at $100 a haircut, five days a week. So that’s $2,500 a week, and then that would be $10,000 a month. That way I could rent an apartment, I could lease a car and then have some money left over to buy a polo shirt and a pair of Nike tennis shoes and maybe go to the South Beverly Grill for dinner.

What do you think your younger self who just wanted to do five haircuts a day would think of your career now?

I always admired people like Vidal Sassoon and José Eber, Carrie White, Kenneth. I never thought I would be put into a category like them, and my younger self never even dreamed.

What made you decide to finally launch your own brand?

When I finish their hair, people always say, ‘Oh, I love my hair. How do I do this myself?’ […] I want people to be more comfortable with doing their own hair, and I want to teach people little tips, tricks and hacks.

My Drunk Elephant contract was up, and I had no commitments. There were a couple of contracts from [brands that] were very interested in working with me, and Kenny read over them. He goes, ‘These are great, it’s just the same thing that you’ve been doing. Why don’t you do your own thing? You have an amazing career, an amazing life. The money’s nice, but you already work hard. Even without this extra money, you’re fine.’ 

We started talking about, if I did my own product, what would it look like? It started organically [with] creating mood boards of what my vision of this product would look like.  

Over the last two and a half years since Sephora and I became partners, I’ve learned so much and I love it. I am officially a little business, a little corporate. Right now, we’re in Palm Springs on a corporate retreat. I’ve never, ever been on a corporate retreat before.

How are you funding the brand?

We did a fundraise — we just stuck to friends and family — and we did a second fundraise and we got to our goals.

What is the philosophy behind the products?

It’s easy to drop a shampoo and conditioner, but I want to give people styling products. I want hair to feel like I’m doing it, I want people to be able to have that amazing blowout. I really do care about the hair and the scalp, because I want people to know you can style your hair and not fry it. You can actually continue to grow your hair while styling it.

These are the core products that I use on a daily basis in the salon every day. I’m taking the overwhelming, ‘I wouldn’t know what to use!’ out of the equation. 

I am a working hairdresser. I’m really engulfed in the hair business. So that’s what makes me different: I’m going back to my roots, I’m going back to the basics and I’m really keeping things simple for everybody.

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These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Source: Fashionista.com